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We reported on Wednesday that Meredith Baker, one of the FCC commissioners who approved the NBC-Comcast merger, will be leaving her post to work for – you guessed it – Comcast. Don't forget to shut the "Impartial Agent of the Government" door behind you, Meredith.
The media has pretty soundly crapped on the move. The negative feedback isn't surprising – especially once you consider that Baker spent the entire approval process whining about the length of the process and trying to rubber-stamp the deal.
On her end, Baker's released a statement on the FCC website trying to convince everybody that the move was simply an astounding display of bad timing, rather than another example of you-scratch-my-back-I'll-scratch-yours political maneuvering. “Not once in my entire tenure as a Commissioner had anyone at Comcast or NBC Universal approached me about potential employment.” Unfortunately, since the statement was released online, we couldn't see if Baker was crossing her fingers.
A signed ethics agreement prohibits Baker from lobbying the FCC for two years, but she's free to pull her Congressional strings immediately.
Comments are closed on this article
bling581
May 16, 2011 at 10:10am
The whole political process sucks and there's nothing we can do about it. The government is supposed to be regulating things like this but how can it be fixed when they ARE the problem? We can live with hope that the next President will take care of the issue but that's just a crap shoot. The only thing that will cure our corrupt political system is an extreme action such as a revolution, but I don't see that ever happening. Nothing is going to happen until it's too late and people finally start to realize just how bad our country has gotten.
Thoren
May 13, 2011 at 12:34pm
There must be a mistake in your article, Obama said he was going to put an end to the revolving door of shillery once he was in office... surely your article can't be right.
Sigh.
bling581
May 16, 2011 at 10:03am
This is why I don't vote because you can't trust any politician to keep their word.
Brad Chacos
May 13, 2011 at 8:45pm
No mistake, Thoren. Like I said, Obama's ethics pledge keeps Baker from petitioning the FCC directly. Everyone else is another matter, of course....
opticallog
May 13, 2011 at 4:00pm
It doesn't matter who appointed her. Bureaucrats from all parts of the political spectrum engage in quid pro quo like this all the time. And even if it did matter who appointed her, the fact that she was a Bush appointee should mean that if Obama was going to put his foot down on this type of rampant corruption, he'd do so by starting with people that aren't his own, so to speak. And the reason he's not doing anything about it is because both parties benefit from these arrangements, and it's better for everyone in the political sphere not to rock the boat.
All of this of course misses the larger issue, which is that when you grant government entities the power to regulate industries, those regulatory bodies are inevitably taken over by the people who they are supposed to be policing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulatory_capture). This is the primary reason we should not be rushing headlong into granting the FCC new authority to regulate Net Neutrality. Of course the objective of an open 'net is desirable in of itself, but granting government power over content based bandwidth throttling will ultimately end with the regulations bending towards policies preferred by those with the greatest stake in the outcome, i.e., large ISPs.
win7fanboi
May 13, 2011 at 12:19pm
Kudos on this post. We need articles like these and the ones Quinn Norton writes to hit mainstream. Wake up people... the termites are eating the foundation while the middle class is shrinking...
someuid
May 13, 2011 at 12:14pm
Two thoughts:
Federal employees get a regular grilling about avoiding creating even the appearance of collusion, deal-making, and preferential treatment, let alone even entering into such illegal activities. She's gotten the same, and the fact that she's willing to go against that shows there are bountiful rewards waiting for her and Comcast.
No one gets a job like that this fast. Those kind of jobs take months to fill. You might not see the process like you see it - see a job opening, submit a resume, go through the interview - but she's been in talks with them for sure. VP jobs are not just handed out Friday afternoon because management is in a betting mood. Relationships are formed, careers are watched, ideas are kicked around, an offer is mentioned at an official gathering or event or weekend retreat, and a hand is shook. Comcast might not have set their sighst on her years ago, and she might not have set her sights on working for Comcast, but the preferentail treatment is there. Comcast makes it known they're looking for a person with good political connections to help them out, and she makes it know she has the connections, the inside access, and is willing to work for a company to help them gain an advantage.
protaganis
May 16, 2011 at 8:44am
Probably the best summary of events I've ever read!
The saddest part is that there is minimal recourse that we citizens can take with regard to her actions.
Realistically, they could probably prosecute her under the Insider Trading statutes if they really wnated to, but none of the political animals out the really wants to rock the boat or endanger their meal tickets (no matter how ill gotten they are)
